The government and the ruling Saenuri Party agreed Wednesday to inject an extra budget of more than 200 billion won ($180 million) to alleviate effects of the worst drought that has hit South Korea in more than a century.

The budget will be used, among other things, to build irrigation pipelines to send water from the nation's four major rivers -- the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan -- to drought-stricken areas.

"The measure is to make use of the four rivers to bring the water closer to the affected areas," said Rep. Na Seong-lin of the Saenuri Party, who participated in the government-ruling party meeting.

More than 700 million tons of water contained in the 16 newly built dams along the four rivers has so far remained useless because the dams are located far from the affected areas.

The country remains gripped by the worst drought in more than a century, which is feared to hit hard agricultural production and bump up food and other consumer prices. The national weather agency forecasts that the current drought is highly likely to last until next April. (Yonhap)